A lot in the engineering industry has changed in the past 30 years, but, according to mother-daughter engineering duo, Jo-Anne Dudley and Darcy Beer, hard work, resilience, and passion are still the key ingredients to a fulfilling career in engineering.
Jo-Anne is a mining engineer with 26 years’ experience in the engineering sector and her daughter, Darcy is studying civil and environmental engineering at UQ. Together they share and compare their experiences studying and working in the engineering industry, including starting out in the workplace, raising a family as a fly-in fly-out worker, and the piece of advice Darcy values most from her mum.
If you are considering taking the leap into engineering, this episode is essential listening.
To learn more about studying engineering at UQ visit the Future Students website.
Duration: 26:15 mins
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Meet our guests
Jo-Anne Dudley
Jo-Anne Dudley graduated from UNSW as a mining engineer in 1994. She holds a NSW Below Ground Mine Manager’s Certificate of Competency and a Graduate Certificate in Technology Management. A Chartered Professional engineer, Jo was awarded AusIMM Fellow membership in 2016. Jo-Anne was selected as the 2018 Exceptional Woman in Queensland Resources and in the 2018 100 Global Women in Mining.
Jo-Anne worked in underground mines in Queensland, Northern Territory and Tasmania as an Underground contractor before spending almost 10 years at Northparkes underground mine working in Operations and Studies. In 2005 she joined the Rio Tinto technical group working on mines in South Africa and the USA as well as continuing work in Australia. From 2010 to 2018, Jo-Anne worked for Rio Tinto on the worldclass Copper-Gold Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, first on underground studies then strategic planning, managing teams in Brisbane, Ulannbaatar and at the Oyu Tolgoi Mine.
In 2019, Jo became Chief Operating Officer for Turquoise Hill Resources, 66% owner of the Oyu Tolgoi mine. Keen to encourage more women into STEM careers and support their journey, she spent five years on the UQ Women in Engineering program advisory board and is a volunteer mentor of women at mine sites in Queensland via the WIMARQ mentoring program.
Connect with Jo-Anne on LinkedIn.
Darcy Beer
Darcy Beer graduated high school in 2017 with an OP 1 and gave the speech at graduation on behalf of the graduating class as Valedictorian.
She commenced a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) at UQ in 2018.
In 2019, she started her major in civil and environmental engineering and became a Women in Engineering Student Leader. She spent the 2019-2020 vacation period working on-site in Central Queensland as an undergraduate mining engineer for Thiess at the Dawson South Mine.
Currently, Darcy is in her third year of civil and environmental engineering at UQ.
Connect with Darcy on LinkedIn.
